WEEKEND WRAP: Host Gloucester Celtic golden in first Canadian soccer championships held in nation's capital
The moment the Gloucester Celtic had been dreaming of materialized on Thanksgiving Monday when they captured the Challenge Trophy for the fourth time in club history but only time at home as Ottawa welcomed its first-ever Canada Soccer National Championships from Oct. Veteran Celtic captain Joey Kewin was named tournament MVP after scoring three goals in three matches to earn his third Canadian men's amateur crown with Gloucester in the space of five years (2022, 2024 and 2026, while the Celtic earned one earlier title in 2013).
With his mom in the 1,000-strong crowd proudly holding a poster with three faces cut out of her son in different phases of his career including one from childhood, Kewin opened the scoring off a feed from Kelvin Asabre just five minutes into the Thanksgiving morning final against Vancouver ICSF Columbus FC. Kewin was front-and-centre again in the 16th minute when he would have had a clear break towards the goal before he was fouled and a Vancouver defender received a red card.
Gloucester vs Vancouver 2026 Challenge Trophy final. The Celtic beat CS Trident-Ouest de Québec 3-0 and Winnipeg Lucania FC 5-1 earlier in the tournament to advance to the final.
"This is what we've always dreamed of - having everyone here and winning it for the fans. We didn't know there was this much to do when we said we'd host, but it's been great," Ottawa Gloucester Hornets technical director Jason Da Costa told the Ottawa Sports Pages.
"It's nice to have home fans support it, and hopefully we can host more nationals, even at the youth levels or other levels. Once they see our facilities and see that we can do it and do a good job, hopefully we can host more of these.
It's great for the city of Ottawa. You know, it's never usually hosted here, and we're a big soccer community and we've got a lot of good soccer players here, a lot of good clubs.
The 2026 Challenge Cup-champion Gloucester Celtic. His side had exited Ontario Cup playdowns early and relied on the host berth to enter nationals, but the Hornets more than proved they belonged.
Gloucester won their opening match in penalty-kicks after dominating CS Lasalle but emerging tied 1-1 after regulation, and then lost 1-0 to Northwest United / St. Albert Impact FC en route to sixth place overall.
The regular Gloucester women's premier team lineup included roughly three-quarters university players, who were not available to play at the nationals. In stepped a collection of the club's competitive-1 Ottawa Carleton Soccer League players and some top Hornets youth players to field a roster that ranged in age from 17 to 35."